1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a guide lamp for a vehicle, and more particularly, to a guide lamp for a vehicle, that provides guidance along a path of a vehicle to the drivers of nearby vehicles or nearby pedestrians.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many vehicles today are equipped with lamps or lights for illuminating nearby objects for night-time driving (e.g., during poor lighting conditions) or signaling nearby vehicles or pedestrians as to a state of driving. For example, headlights and fog lights are mainly for illuminating purposes, and turn signal lights, taillights, brake lights, and side marker lights are mainly for signaling purposes. Turn signal lights are disposed at the front left, front right, rear left and rear right sides, respectively, of a vehicle and are turned on to signal to the drivers of nearby vehicles or nearby pedestrians of a lane change or a left turn or right turn at an intersection in advance, thereby avoiding accidents.
More specifically, in response to an attempted lane change, lamps of turn signal lights on the side of the vehicle along the path of the vehicle based on the lane change may be turned on and may be configured to flash according to a driver manipulation or the driving state of the vehicle, thereby alerting the drivers of nearby vehicles or nearby pedestrians to the direction of the lane change lanes or turn at an intersection. However, vehicles or pedestrians may not be able to easily detect and identify the flashing turn signal lights of the vehicle when located in, for example, a blind spot of the vehicle. Therefore, a method is needed to provide guidance as to whether and what direction the path of a vehicle is to be changed to the drivers of nearby vehicles or nearby pedestrians to facilitate recognition of the turn signal lights of the vehicle.